Are You Ready to Wrestle Big Data?

Is big data just a marketing invention or are we really getting hit by massive waves of data and struggling not to drown? I recently met with an operation research director from a well-known US fast food chain who told me that he would leave if I mentioned big data. But with that said, he absolutely recognized that data is hitting us harder than ever before.

You can find a number of articles and blogs with creative metrics on how much data is growing in volume, velocity and variety. Soon, your refrigerator will tell you when you need to buy milk. There is really no need to debate whether data is big or not. It’s there and growing.

Great – so now we have all this data and then so what? In the world of big data technology, we are all getting educated on how we can store data cheaper and the word of Hadoop is on everybody’s lips. Do we need to get our hands dirty and dig in to see what’s there or how we wrestle the big data phenomenon? The hardest part is not finding ways to capture and store massive amounts of data. The harder part is figuring out what data is relevant and how we use the data to ultimately make operations more efficient or drive better decision.

Ask yourself what your data can do for you to make your organization better. I believe that you should begin by evaluating what could make it better. Determine which part of your operation could be improved and then let the data help you make that happen. The value is not having the data – it is transforming the data to decisions.

One example of a company that identified a way to let big data drive value is Followmont Transport in Queensland, Australia. Followmont knew that gaining an accurate view of the freight mix could help managers more efficiently load trucks, optimize runs and staffing, and ultimately yield a better customer experience. But the challenge is turning data into the right reports in real time.

Followmont chose visual analytics techniques to help generate instant reports and allow for decisions to be made on the fly by managers using visualizations. Being able to stream data in real time and supply the information back to the truck drivers has increased customer satisfaction.

Read more about how Followmont Transportation got value from applying real time visual analytics here and ask yourself if you are ready to wrestle big data and what can your data do for you?